Skinning device for removing skin from an animal carcass, in particular pork, is one of the challenges within the field of meat processing.
Considerable development has been made in the last decades within this field where hand held skinners such as the one disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,631,780 has been developed, as well as stationary skinners as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,504,721 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,703,199.
These stationary skinners however require a manual labour to move the animal carcass/carcass part over the skinning device while the skin is being removed therefrom. Also, the fact that the surface of the animal carcass/carcass part can be very irregular limits the throughput because the operator must move the animal carcass/carcass part several times through the stationary skinner. Also, some fat is removed simultaneously with the skin removal which affects the yield of the processing because fat is typically worth more than the skin. Moreover, the above mentioned stationary skinners require that manual labor is present at all times.
The inventor of the present invention has appreciated that there is thus a need for an improved skinning device, preferred embodiments of which provide higher throughput and yield and has in consequence devised the present invention.